"Taft 2012: A Novel"

Tulsa, OK – On today's show, with Inauguration Day exactly one year away, we speak with the Denver-based cultural journalist Jason Heller, whose first novel, just out as a Quirk Books Paperback Original, is "Taft 2012." It's a highly satirical and sometimes rather moving magical-realist novel in which William Howard Taft --- yes, the portly guy who was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a second term as U.S. President in the election of 1912 (and who later served on the Supreme Court) --- is once again running for the White House in 2012. In a starred review, a critic for Publishers Weekly called Heller's book "a stellar debut" --- and a Booklist reviewer was likewise appreciative of this funny and insightful novel: "Heller tells his imaginative story with tweets and TV transcripts as well as conventional expository prose, adding to the amusement of a cross-generational look at politics."